Awesome scary books

At the Library

Chantelle Taylor

Halloween is right around the corner, the library has all kinds of scary books for kids of all ages.

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson isn’t a Halloween book exactly, but it is my favourite book about a monster. The Gruffalo is about a clever mouse who outsmarts the animals trying to eat him with a story about an imaginary monster. For lots of noise and fun around the house, how about If you’re a Monster and You Know It by Rebecca and Ed Emberley, it’s based on the song and your monsters get to growl, snort, stomp and twitch a tail. The Hallo-weiner by Dave Pilkey is a hilarious book about a dachshund named Oscar whose mother dresses him as a hot dog for Halloween. After being made fun of and having his costume slowing him down so much he misses out on candy, Oscar ends up saving the day from some prank loving cats.

For older kids the Goosebumps series is winner with titles like Planet of the Lawn Gnomes, The Birthday Party of No Return and Heads, You Lose. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, is loosely based on the jungle book and is the story of orphan Nobody Owens. His parents are murdered in the first chapter and he is raised by the inhabitants of the famous Highgate cemetery in London. Neil Gaiman is also famous for Coraline(made into a fantastic movie) a graphic novel about a young girl who goes through a secret door to find an alternate version of her world. But is the “Other Mother” really better than her own? Or how about a Scooby Doo mystery night!! The library has Scooby DVDS including Scooby-Doo! 13 spooky tales: run for your 'rife or Scooby-Doo! and the Safari Creatures.

Teen literature right now is filled with zombie apocalypses, vampires, kids killing each other for a higher purpose(Hunger Games I’m looking at you). So what could possible be scary to teens?? Maybe a nice romance? Just kidding… go old school with some Stephen King. Carrie has just hit the big screen again, but in the library world we know the book is always better.

Darren Shan is a master of teen horror books with several series, Cirque Du Freak, Demonata, and The Saga of Larten Crepsley. Darren Shan has also jumped on the zombie bandwagon with Zom-B; a series which chronicles the journey of B during the zombie apocalypse in London. Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake is the story of a teenage ghost hunter named Cas Lowood, who travels around killing ghosts. He hears about a haunted house in Thunder Bay, where everyone who enters has been ripped to shreds by the Anna of the title, who was murdered the night of a high school dance. Because he moves around so much and tends to only stay for a short period of time Cas doesn’t usually take the time to get involved with his classmates. When he is befriended by the most popular girl in school, her ex objects to the friendship by taking Cas to Anna’s house to scare him. Things don’t go so well when the ex is killed by Cas is spared.

And of course we have scary books for adults as well, Retirement's harsh new realities : protecting your money in a changing world by Gordon Pape or Vegan junk food : 225 sinful snacks that are good for the soul : no meat, no dairy, lots of love!by Lane Gold and of course everyone’s favourite frightening book from last summer 50 Shades of Grey.